Background:
Differences in the prevalence and duration of co-morbid conditions in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients compared to population controls have not been well documented.
Methods:
The prevalence and duration of 17 chronic conditions defined by the US Department of Health and Human Services, as well as anxiety, obesity, and smoking status, was obtained in a random sample of 1430 patients with incident AF from 2000-2010 and 1430 controls from Olmsted County, MN. Controls were matched to cases 1:1 on sex and age (within 5 years). Chronic conditions were ascertained electronically requiring 2 occurrences of a diagnostic code; the duration of each condition (up to 25 years) was calculated. Logistic regression determined associations of each condition with AF after adjustment for all other conditions.
Results:
Among the 1430 matched pairs (median age 76 years, 48.6% men), the prevalence of chronic conditions was higher in AF cases compared to controls for all conditions except asthma, dementia, depression, hepatitis, and osteoporosis (figure). However, the duration of the conditions were similar in AF compared to controls, except for hypertension (median duration 12.3 and 9.9 years in AF cases and controls, respectively; p=0.002). After adjusting for all other conditions, obesity, hypertension, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, chronic kidney disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease remained significantly more common in AF compared to controls (figure). Conditions with the largest attributable risk of AF were hypertension (25.4%), coronary artery disease (17.7%), and congestive heart failure (12.3%).
Conclusions:
AF patients have a higher prevalence of many chronic conditions compared to population controls. However, besides hypertension, these comorbidities do not develop earlier in AF. Nevertheless, the excess comorbidity burden in AF is important to characterize and understand as it may partly explain the excess mortality and healthcare utilization experienced by AF patients.